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Today:
Nearsightedness Rates Are Soaring. Here’s Why
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Some even consider myopia, also known as nearsightedness, an epidemic. How myopia developsWhile having two myopic parents does mean you’re more likely to be nearsighted, there’s no single myopia gene. The more time we spend focusing on something within arm’s length of our faces, dubbed “near work,” the greater the odds of having myopia. Outside light keeps myopia at bayOther research has shown that this unnatural eye growth can be interrupted by sunlight. The odds of developing myopia dropped by 2% for each hour spent outside per week.

Top Stories:
U.S. Needs to Better Track Bird Flu Spread in Farm Animals, Farm Workers, Epidemiologist Says
NEWS | 01 May 2024
As an epidemiologist who followed COVID closely, what has it been like for you to watch the bird flu situation unfold? Should people be worried about getting the H5N1 virus from milk? From the genomic surveillance, it looks like the spread to cows was likely from one source—probably a dead bird. Certainly if we start seeing any trace of human-to-human transmission, we would really need to start ramping up. On the ground, we really need to get a handle on where H5N1 is spreading and how.

World:
Bird Flu Virus Has Been Spreading in U.S. Cows for Months
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Researchers also express concern that the genomic data wasn’t released until almost four weeks after the outbreak was announced. The cattle outbreak is not expected to allow the virus to gain the ability to spread between people, but researchers say it is important to be vigilant. Analysis of the genomes suggests that the cattle outbreak probably began with a single introduction from wild birds in December or early January. But an important caveat is that it isn’t clear what percentage of infected cows the samples represent, he says. One possibility is that the person was infected by a separate viral lineage, which infected cattle that have not been swabbed.

Current Events:
Energy Independence Is a Big Election Talking Point—But What Does It Mean?
NEWS | 01 May 2024
CLIMATEWIRE | Energy independence is having a moment in the run-up to November’s presidential election. Energy independence is really just a “political slogan,” said Andrew Campbell, executive director of the Energy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. One definition holds that energy independence occurs when the United States produces more energy than it consumes. A more stringent definition for energy independence bars the import of all foreign fuels. Reducing reliance on fossil fuels is a key, and often overlooked, step toward energy independence, he said.

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SPONSORED | 01 May 2024
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News Flash:
Why Feathers Are One of Evolution’s Cleverest Inventions
NEWS | 01 May 2024
In flight feathers, the barbs interlock like Velcro teeth to form the smooth, windproof surface of the vanes. The contour feathers that streamline a bird’s body, for example, have vaned tips like flight feathers and noninterlocking barbs like down ones. The bristle feathers that typically occur on the face and may serve protective and sensory purposes meld the flight feathers’ stiff shafts (called rachises) with the down feathers’ fluffy base. Maria Amorette KlosScientists have also shown a recent surge of interest in another category of feathers: display feathers, the showy feathers that help to attract mates. One way feathers can adapt to a particular way of life is by increasing or decreasing in stiffness.

Latest:
How Schools Can Help Kids Reduce Racism and Prejudice
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Such training and discussions not only help to reduce children’s prejudices but also burnish their ability to resolve conflicts and make school less stressful. As kids grow into adults, their ideas of “us versus them” too often harden into prejudices—and that has consequences. Our program shows kids how to challenge such stereotypes with the hope of making society better for everyone. Children didn’t always apply their ideas of fairness, we found, when they conflicted with the kids’ group identity. During the program, elementary school kids be­­tween eight and 11 years of age gather in a classroom once a week for eight weeks.

Breaking:
Turning Down the Noise Around You Improves Health in Many Ways
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Banks’s idea that loud noise “can’t be good” is well supported by science. But in general, research shows, reducing loud noise can reduce the risk of harm. The book focused on what loud sound could do to hearing and touched on work performance, sleep, vision and blood circulation. “Folks who are already in marginalized communities may be bearing way more than their fair share of noise exposure,” Neitzel says. The U.S. Department of Transportation has a map for transportation noise, but it doesn’t include workplace noise or inside noise.

Trending:
Prostate Cancer Advances Make Late-Stage Disease More Treatable
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Deciding how to diagnose and treat prostate cancer has long been the subject of controversy and uncertainty. At its most basic level, prostate cancer is a malignancy that occurs in the prostate gland, which produces fluid that mixes with sperm from the testicles to make semen. In fact, with these tests, cancer specialists have characterized the fourth category, oligometastatic prostate cancer, a disease stage on a continuum between localized prostate cancer and more broadly dispersed metastatic disease. These scans can detect molecules commonly found in prostate cancer cells, such as prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA). When researchers studied cancer in families with BRCA mutations, they uncovered many cases of prostate cancer.

This Just In:
Corals Are Once Again Bleaching En Masse, but Their Fate Isn’t Sealed
NEWS | 01 May 2024
But more importantly is the poor people who live beside them that depend on coral reefs for their food security and for the other so-called ecosystem services that coral reefs provide to societies. So scientists have determined that we’re in the middle of a global mass bleaching event. A mass bleaching event is by definition a mass mortality event. Even the most pristine, most remote, best-managed coral reefs in the world are being hammered by repeated bouts of mass coral bleaching. Hughes: I'll be underwater on the southern Great Barrier Reef at study sites that I have been studying since 1985, revealing my age.

Today:
A Long-Awaited Climate Experiment Is Poised to Launch in the Amazon. What Will It Find?
NEWS | 01 May 2024
A Long-Awaited Climate Experiment Is Poised to Launch in the Amazon. The main goal of the AmazonFACE experiment is really very simple, says Beto Quesada, one of the project’s leaders. He says that experiments in the lab to test this are too artificial to get good results even if you bring in a load of jungle soil. [CLIP: “Let There Be Rain,” by Silver Maple]Most of the phosphorus in the Amazon originated in the bedrock of surrounding regions. But this experiment is the best scientific evidence yet that phosphorus could be the forest’s limiting factor.

Top Stories:
A Singular Climate Experiment Takes Shape in the Amazon
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Climate researchers realized decades ago that an experiment like this one was essential for forecasting the Amazon’s future. Grossman: A dieback would occur if the Amazon jungle and global climate interact in a disastrous, vicious cycle. It would work like this: Hotter, drier weather caused by climate change weakens and kills Amazon trees, reducing the amount of CO 2 from fossil fuel burning that the forest soaks up. Grossman: But scientists can’t yet say if carbon fertilization will save the Amazon, in part because the forest is so diverse. Amazon trees are huge—up to 110 feet tall here at ZF2—so they require extra-large plots.

World:
This Simple Strategy Might Be the Key to Advancing Science Faster
NEWS | 01 May 2024
The incentives in science don’t always encourage openness—but being wrong might just be the key to getting it right. Aschwanden: It also seems necessary to always be seeking out errors or pockets of uncertainty if you’re going to make progress in science, right? Nosek: And then there’s this science that’s maturing over time, that sort of, like, “Oh, we think we got a hang of this. It could have been certain decisions that I made as I was going along the process because I’m, I’m human, and I’m engaged in those ideas. But the questions I’m left with are: Given that every scientific idea contains uncertainty, how can we really know things?

Current Events:
Will the Amazon Rain Forest Help Save the Planet?
NEWS | 01 May 2024
Years in the making, a project in the Amazon rain forest is finally set to determine whether a rise in carbon dioxide could save one of the world’s largest carbon sinks. Buried deep in their code, most global climate models assume that Amazon forest will benefit from morecarbon dioxide. Grossman: Since nobody has run a carbon fertilization experiment in any tropical forest, the effect’s possible benefits to the Amazon aren’t known. Scott says that getting a grip on what makes the Amazon forest tick is essential for predicting the rate of global warming. In the next episode I’ll describe how the Amazon carbon dioxide experiment ran out of cash and was nearly abandoned by its staff.

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SmartSync Data Sync App
SPONSORED | 01 May 2024
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here